The present invention concerns a machine for stripping meat from a fowl leg or thigh bone by driving the bone thereof past cooperating stripping elements. The known prior art includes several machines which have as their purpose the removal of flesh from the lower leg and/or thigh bones of fowl.
In the poultry industry, it has been found commercially beneficial to market poultry meat to the consumer with the bone removed. Further, bone removal greatly facilitates frozen storage of the meat with little or no degradation of meat quality. Shipping and retailing of the end product also benefit from bone removal.
The known prior art includes the patents to Segur et al and Segur U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,510,908 and 3,216,056 respectively. The former patent discloses a stationary plate which is shaped so as to strip meat from a bone gripped at one end by clamping members which thereafter draws the bone past the stationary stripping plate. The remaining Segur patent discloses cooperating jaws which engage bone ends while manual stripping is performed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,000 to Martin et al is of interest in that a first pair of blades move horizontally to engage and hold a bone end while a second pair of blades close against and thereafter are drawn along the bone to strip the meat. The mechanism is very complex with a lengthy cycling time.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,893,051 to Massengill is of interest for the reason it discloses cooperating pushing and pulling components acting axially on the bones of a ham to move the ham past a stationary stripping blade. The stripping is terminated by a blade normal to the bone path severing remaining tendons and ligaments.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,187 to Zwiep et al shows a traveling "plow" which severs meat from a suspended large animal bone.